Zoë Howe

Zoë Howe’s books span the worlds of music, culture and the occult. A strong advocate for women and cultural figures who have been underestimated or marginalised, she was part of the core team behind the award-winning documentary Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, and her 2009 debut was Typical Girls? The Story of the Slits: the first full-scale biography of a female group, according to Dr Audrey Golden. Subsequently Zoë’s music books have covered artists including Stevie Nicks, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Poly Styrene, The Jam and Dr Feelgood, and she was a contributing author to the updated The Art of Punk in 2022. Her latest books include Witchful Thinking: The Wise Woman’s Handbook for Creating A Charmed Life and Scorpio Witch, the latter co-authored with Ivo Dominguez Jr (Llewellyn). Zoë is also the editor of Pauline Murray’s hit memoir Life’s A Gamble and Lindsay Reade’s A Continual Farewell: My Life In Letters With Tony Wilson. Her debut novel Shine On, Marquee Moon was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize in 2016 and she was announced as music writing festival Louder Than Words’ ‘Festival Luminary’ in 2017.

Zoë Howe is a prolific author, rock biographer, editor and broadcaster. Most often associated with work celebrating female punk rock artists, Zoë was part of the team behind award-winning documentary Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, and her 2009 non-fiction debut Typical Girls? The Story of the Slits broke ground, being the first full-scale biography of a female/female-fronted band. Zoë has spoken at colleges and universities across the UK on music journalism skills, and her RLF Fellowship has seen her working with students at Newnham and Selwyn Colleges, University of Cambridge. Zoë is also a visual artist and plays the drums.